The current heat wave that started Saturday with the initial day of 100 degree plus heat and is expected to continue through this Saturday comes just two weeks shy of the worst modern power outage ever in Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop as well as the rest of Northern California.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Flames raced down a steep hillside "like a freight train," leaving smoldering remains of homes and warnings that more communities should be ready to flee the wildfire churning through tinder-dry canyons in Southern California, authorities said Sunday.

Dr. Christine Hollister, Regent of the Stockton Chapter of the Daughters of the American Colonists, recently honored member Iris Samuel with the State organization's 2015 Most Valuable Chapter Member Award for her over 140 volunteer hours in making quilts that were delivered to our wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the Veterans Hospital in Palo Alto Health Care System, hoping to bring comfort to the men and women in the Trauma Center.

It was a fundraiser experience this week for Ripon High senior Kaela Gill, who doubles as a sergeant for the student Police Explorer Program, when she was presented a $3,000 check for her cadets who assisted with parking cars at the Mistlin Park Fourth of July celebration.